The present disclosure concerns an applicator for applying a coating agent, particularly a sealant, to a component, such as to a flanged seam of a motor vehicle body component, and a corresponding application method.
The present disclosure also describes a coating robot with an exemplary applicator and the novel use of an exemplary applicator in a coating device.
Applicators are generally known from DE 10 2004 039 684 B4 and JP 2005 122 027 A which describe a translational avoiding movement by an application nozzle. However, these applicators are generally unsuitable for applying a sealant to a flanged seam of a motor vehicle body component.
FIG. 10 (prior art) shows a specimen flanged seam 1, as is frequently found in motor vehicle body components such as bonnets or doors. A sheet metal panel 2 is cemented to an angled panel edge 4 of an inside panel 5 by a layer of adhesive 3, where a panel edge 6 of the sheet metal panel 2 is curved in a U-shape around the panel edge 4 of the inside panel 5 and lies against the reverse side of the panel edge 4 of the inside panel 5. Moisture may penetrate the gap between the panel edge 6 of the sheet metal panel 2 and the panel edge 4 of the inside panel 5, causing corrosion. Thus, a sealant 7 may be applied to the seam between the panel edge 6 of the sheet metal panel 2 and the panel edge 4 of the inside panel 5. However, the sealant 7 must extend along the entire length of the seam in order to effectively prevent the penetration of moisture and the associated corrosion.
In practice, when motor vehicle body doors are being coated, the sealant 7 is applied manually by workers, who first open the relevant door and then apply the sealant 7 to the seam manually.
There are also working methods in which the workers coat the flanged seam 1 with the door closed. In this case, the manually-guided tool uses the external surface of the component as a guide.
However, the manual application of the sealant 7 to the flanged seam 1 is a labor-intensive and costly process.
Further, attempts to apply sealant 7 to the flanged seam with a coating robot have hitherto entailed considerable problems in practice, for various reasons.
Firstly, the sealant 7 could only be applied to the flanged seam 1 in the case of doors and bonnets if the doors and bonnets were first opened, which necessitates an extra step of opening the doors or bonnets.
Secondly, the application of the sealant 7 to the flanged seam 1 requires extremely high positional accuracy of the coating robot, which is only possible with a sensor-assisted positional control system that constantly readjusts the position of the robot in accordance with any positional deviations detected. In an automatic application of the sealant 7 to the flanged seam 1, the cost for such control systems in order to achieve the necessary positional accuracy vitiates any cost savings realized from the decrease in labour costs.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a more cost-effective method of applying a sealant to a flanged seam.